GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Peter Varga, CEO of The Rapid, choked back tears Thursday at a ceremony to mark the start of work on Grand Rapids' long-awaited $40 million bus rapid transit Silver Line.

Through 10 years of work, many players helped assure the project would happen, Varga said. But one key figure was missing: late Kentwood Mayor Richard Root, who died of cancer last year, spent years working on the Silver Line.

"Sorry for my emotion," Varga said as he stood in a packed room at the Beltline Bar in Wyoming, his voice breaking. "Mayor Root was a close friend, and he should be here today. So let's think about him as we dedicate the future."

Though a decade in the making, project coordinators said Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony — which attracted Gov. Rick Snyder — marked the project's official start.

Heralded by Snyder as a landmark system that will bolster transit in a rapidly developing region, the Silver Line is expected to open for service in August 2014. It will be operated by the Interurban Transit Partnership, which operates The Rapid bus system in Grand Rapids and five adjacent communities.

Work began last week on the first of what will be 33 stations along 9.6 miles of Division Avenue and several downtown Grand Rapids thoroughfares. It was the culmination of years of planning, and success and defeat alike.

View full sizeRendering of a bus rapid transit Silver Line station.Courtesy | The Rapid

Roughly $8 million in state funding will go toward constructing the stations and purchasing 10 buses that are designed to shave 40 percent off commute times. Federal funding, officially secured last year, totals some $32 million.

About $1.2 million from a narrowly passed millage from May 2011 and $1 million in fare revenue and state operating assistance will be used to operate the Silver Line each year.

Snyder, who offered brief remarks at the ceremony, contended the Silver Line serves as a model for future such transit projects in the state, including movement to revamp public transportation in metro Detroit.

"We're not talking about just the nice thing, we're talking about a critically important thing in terms of public transportation," Snyder said. "It's peoples' lifeline to a job. … It's peoples' lifeline to health care. There are so many reasons that public transportation plays a very important role, and to be open, many of us don't recognize that as much as we should."

The Silver Line will stretch from 60th Street in Wyoming to downtown Grand Rapids. Its buses will stop every 10 minutes at stations along the route during peak travel times, and ever 20-30 minutes during off-peak times.

Critics, pointing to the project's price tag, have for years dismissed the Silver Line as a useless project that will be underutilized. To be sure, The Rapid suffered defeat in 2009, when it first asked taxpayers for a millage to pay for it.

Its second try, to raise $15.6 million each year until 2018, passed in May 2011 by 136 votes. It was rejected in four cities, but passed on the strength of votes in Grand Rapids and East Grand Rapids.

Most of that money is being used for service upgrades, including more frequent and later service, that went into effect last year, with $1.2 million each year going toward Silver Line operations.

Despite its detractors, the Silver Line has plenty of supporters who say it will be a catalyst for economic development along Division Avenue. The thoroughfare, once Grand Rapids' main artery, is lined by dilapidated buildings in parts, but also is seeing a resurgence.

Just a block over from Division, the highly anticipated $28 million Urban Market is set to open this year. What's more, the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids has invested $22 million in Cathedral Square, which touches Division.

The Silver Line is just another reason to anticipate further investment in the corridor, said Rick Chapla of The Right Place Inc., an economic development firm in Grand Rapids.

"It continues the momentum, of course, that started years ago with downtown redevelopment," Chapla said. "It is the emerging cultural corridor. The BRT will cause people, especially, to look differently at the opportunities."

The Rapid has pointed to studies in other cities that showed bus rapid transit systems increased property values of adjacent homes and businesses by as much as 130 percent.

It could, of course, be years before The Rapid is able to quantify any economic boon the Silver Line brings to the region.

Chapla, however, was confident in its potential.

"The BRT represents the public sector side," he said. "Now we need the private sector to follow, and they will."